Rogue (1985) [PC]

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

-J.R.R Tolkien

I really couldn’t tell you anything about 1985 apart from the fact that I was alive that year. As a two-year-old, I was probably putting things in my mouth that didn’t belong there and speaking gibberish rather than worrying about a “roguelike”. Though that really hasn’t changed in 36 years, what I can say is that retrospect provides plenty of clarity, especially when it comes to my life in the ’80s. According to my father, 1985 was the year that he bought his first computer, a Commodore 64.

This “personal computer” was a big grey box with a clunky key keyboard and a very noisy printer. There were these little black squares that my father had called “floppy disks,” and they were indeed floppy and provided hours of entertainment as frisbees and teething rings. Apparently, those were not used for those purposes, and my tendency to destroy them brought my father a lot of grief. Some, however, did survive, and my dad made sure to tuck them away for safekeeping.

Sitting at the C64

My memories of that time are dim, but I do vaguely remember sitting on his lap as he used the C64. In order to get it started, he would turn it on and type in some magical code on the starting blue screen. The image would then flash some colors and the program would come up. For me, he had a special disk called Reader Rabbit, where I learned about the sounds of words and how to connect letters to make phrases. Every once and a while he would put in Risk or some other grown-up game that provided a mild amount of entertainment. For some reason there is one game, however, that sticks out in my mind far better than the rest. It was a very simple top-down dungeon crawler called Rogue, and I had no clue how important the game would become.

As I grew into the man that I am today, I look back at those early days of gaming and shake my head. There were legendary titles that come from that era, many of which inspired many of the games we enjoy today. Some games even acted as the catalysts for the creation of entire genres, and that is certainly the case for the simple computer game called Rogue. After all, where do you think we got the term “roguelike” from?

A Little Roguelike History Lesson

Before I go tromping through the finer points of this title, we have to step back in time once again to gain some clarity on the “roguelike” genre designation. We won’t have to go as far back as 1985, but we will have to skip back to the mid-2000s and hang out with a bunch of developers in a crowded convention center set in the middle of Berlin, Germany. It was there, in 2008, that a special meeting called the International Roguelike Development Conference met for the first time.

The people were affectionately known as “rogue devs,” and they spent the better part of 20 years developing a gameplay system based on the original Rogue created by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold. These games were beginning to saturate the PC scene, and many had deviated from the original Rogue concept, so this convention was a way to weed out the posers from the genuine articles.

It was during this convention that a rather controversial article was drafted that would divide the game development community, at least for a little while. The article was called the Berlin Interpretation, and it set the standard for what games could truly call themselves “Rogue-like.” It presented a series of criteria that a game must fill in order for the development community to recognize it as a roguelike. Such criteria are as follows (Source http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Berlin_Interpretation):

Random environment generation

The game world is randomly generated in a way that increases replayability. Appearance and placement of items are random. The appearance of monsters is fixed, their placement is random. Fixed content (plots or puzzles or vaults) removes randomness.

Permadeath

You are not expected to win the game with your first character. You start over from the first level when you die. The random environment makes this enjoyable rather than punishing.

Turn-based

Each command corresponds to a single action/movement. The game is not sensitive to time, you can take your time to choose your action.

Grid-based

A uniform grid of tiles represents the world. Monsters (and the player) take up one tile, regardless of size.

Non-modal

Movement, battle, and other actions take place in the same mode. Every action should be available at any point in the game. Violations to this are ADOM’s overworld or Angband’s and Crawl’s shops.

Complexity

The game has enough complexity to allow several solutions to common goals. This is obtained by providing enough item/monster and item/item interactions and is strongly connected to having just one mode.

Resource management

You have to manage your limited resources (e.g. food, healing potions) and find uses for the resources you receive.

Hack’n’slash

Even though there can be much more to the game, killing lots of monsters is a very important part of a roguelike. The game is player-vs-world: there are no monster/monster relations (like enmities, or diplomacy).

Exploration and discovery

The game requires careful exploration of the dungeon levels and discovery of the usage of unidentified items. A player must do this anew every time.

According to the Interpretation, a game is only considered a roguelike if it meets all of these nine points.  The game is simply called a “rogue-lite” if it meets a few of these points. If this is true, then the large portion of games considered roguelike do not meet those standards. So, with all of that said, let’s see what makes this game truly iconic and if it warrants the status of being a legend.

Complexity in Simplicity

For this review, I purchased and downloaded the Steam port of Rogue for a meager $2.99. If you think that is too much for a roguelike created in 1985, then you should check out what collectors have to spend on Famicom carts and hardware. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the game, but the title screen did pop out to me. It shows an armor-clad hero taking on a large octopus-type monster rendered in full 1-bit goodness. The nostalgia of that first glance beckoned me forward as I took the game’s suggestion and “pressed any key to continue.”

Apparently, this game has a narrative, though not very apparent. Here is an excerpt from the instruction manual:

Your quest is to fight your way through the Dungeons of Doom and return with the fabled Amulet of Yendor (or die trying). For protection, you have armor, an enchanted mace, a bow, and a quiver filled with arrows. At the beginning of your journey, you have food to last you one meal. In the dungeons, you will find more food and weapons left behind by previous unlucky seekers. As you descend, search out these hidden treasures, gold pieces, and magical potions to help you in your ultimate search-the quest for the Amulet. Prepare yourself as many monsters challenge your journey. As you proceed through each journey you receive a new rank on your quest. Return triumphant and enter the highest ranks of the Guildmaster’s Hall Of Fame.

So simple, and like the game itself, so 1-dimensional.

Playing Rogue the Roguelike

The game immediately starts after you press a key and you see your little player icon smiling back at you. From the very moment you start moving your character around, you come to discover that this game is much more complex than it appears. Each room presents the possibility of an item or equipment you can use in your quest through the Dungeons of Doom. Occasionally you will come across an enemy indicated by a letter (example: B= bat, I=Ice Monster). To engage the enemies, you simply walk into them and text will appear describing what occurs. Perhaps you swing at a hobgoblin and miss. That enemy will then take a stab at you and possibly land a blow. It feels like everything that occurs is very random, but that is where skill comes in.

To make it deeper into the dungeon, you must learn how to manage your resources. Along the way, you will find food and potions that you can use to strengthen your character. Many times you must experiment with the different colors of potions to figure out what they do. Of course, it wouldn’t be any fun if all the potions, food, and scrolls worked in your favor. By punching in a certain sequence of commands, you can use any one of those items, and the game will instantly tell you if it worked in your favor or not. Sometimes you are lucky, and sometimes you die of poisoning or rotten food. It’s really a roll of the dice like Oregon Trail. That’s right, you died of dysentery.

Exploiting the Gaps

Despite all the factors working again you as you scour the unknown depths, there are some features that give you an edge. After you discover a new item, you may have the opportunity to name it. This is so that you can recognize it in the future. This works especially well with the scrolls, which allow for the player to cast various spells. By naming the scroll, you can ensure future knowledge of the item you picked up. Some of these allow you to see through walls, uncover enemy locations, and discover unknown paths. I found this feature quite handy, especially when it comes to setting up a good rotation of items. The game often graced me with plenty of strong armor and weapons, so I didn’t struggle in that department.

The game rewards you for walking aimlessly around the dungeon. As you move from grid to grid, the health you once lost as you took on killer orcs and emus eventually comes back. The trade-off is that you will get hungry and pass out, so you have to find some food while lurking around the dungeon. As I said before, however, the food might be bad, and tasting it might hurt, so everything is a gamble. With any roguelike (even Rogue itself) risk is something that becomes a large part of the game. Depending on what the RNG gods predetermine for your journey, you might not make it past the first three levels, and there are, on average, 26 separate floors.

Personal Observations

Having logged in about 10 hours on Rogue, I fully understand why this game birthed an entire genre. From the very beginning of the game, the entire experience is about exploration and adventure. Sure, the character is just a weird, circular little emoji with a smiley face, but that is a large part of Rogue’s charm. This game is a tabletop gamer’s dream! It has everything that a seasoned Dungeons and Dragons player wants in a game. It has turn-based battles with an unpredictable dodge/hit system. All items and gear are completely up to the dungeon master, who just so happens to be a soulless and heartless CPU. It allows for a wide range of customization including naming and experimenting with a vast array of items. It even has an exotic menagerie of monsters, as long as they don’t run out of letters in the alphabet. This game is simply a deep RPG, and it is the perfect model for the roguelikes that have followed.

So, it is worth playing in 2021. Absolutely! Rogue is a timeless look at everything that makes games great without all the extra bells and whistles. It is a primordial living fossil of a bygone era of computer gaming. All you had was your mouse, keyboard, a notepad, and Rush blasting in the background! And by God, that was enough! For the incredibly affordable price, it is well worth all 299 pennies. So, travel the Dungeons of Doom, if you dare!

Pixel Perfect

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J.R. Sommerfeldt is a family man, Baptist pastor, and indie game enthusiast who lives in the American heartland of Illinois. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, J.R. has found solace in farm life, but still has a passion for discovering new (and old), video games. He not only writes reviews, but performs “let’s play” reviews of obscure titles on his YouTube channel, JRSBetatTests!